Whoa! Back in Philadelphia

Here I am back in Philadelphia. Like always, I took the long route…. Through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. That took a couple of months. Then Philadelphia. That took less than 3 hours.

I’m here to make myself useful. Kelly’s partner, Jason had a microdiscectomy on his L2 last Thursday and is spending a couple of weeks in rehab before coming home. They had spent 2 weeks with extreme pain and the loss of his legs before finally getting medical treatment. She had to take an unplanned week off from work to deal with that crises. So, I am here as chief cook and bottle washer until I am no longer needed or get released from duty. I suspect that they wouldn’t mind making this a permanent full time gig especially when baby girl arrives in September though I doubt I will be available for that.

I have all my notes back in the camper as to our route and the places we’ve been but I’ll try to reconstruct our route and make corrections when I know better.

5/26-29 Campus Park and Ride, Philadelphia PA

5/30-6/1 – Foxwood Family Campground -  East Stroudsburg PA

6/2-6/4 Covenant Congregational Church parking lot, West Hartford CT

6/5-8 Ashaway RV Resort, Bradford, RI

6/9 – 12   Tuxbury Pond RV Resort, South Hampton, NH

6/13 – Walmart, Thomaston, ME

6/14 – 17  – Bar Harbor Campground, Bar Harbor, ME

6/18 – 19 Hilltop Campground, Robbinston, ME

6/20 - St. John, NB

6/21 – 23 Fundy National Park, NB

6/24 – Casino -Moncton, NB

6/25 – 26 Camping Parasol,  Shediak, NB

6/27-29 Wayside Campbround, Peggy’s Cove, NS

6/30  -  Casino, Moncton, NB

7/1- Walmart, Edmonton, NB (Canada Day)

7/2 -  Walmart, Levis, QB

7/3 – RV Park, Levis, QB

7/4 – 5 Saint Phillipe, QB

7/6  - Serenity Hills RV Park, Renfrew, ON

7/7 - Wal Mart, Sudbury, ON

7/8  -  Kewadin Casino, Sault Ste. Marie, MI

7/9 – 10 Ojibwe Casino, Marquette, MI

7/11 - Thompson West End Campground, Washburn, WI

7/12 - Black Bear Casino, Carlton MN

7/13 – present -  Jean and Mark’s farm, Daggett Brook, MN

I did it with the aid of my pictures, calendar, google maps and RV Parky. I was able to retrace the places that we parked the camper. I think this is mostly right.

I am working as a vegetarian cook for a third trimester pregnant woman. So far, I think that I am doing pretty well. I scrounged up ingredients for fusilli with parmesan cheese (a fancy version of mac & cheese) with sautéed vegetables the first night. Unfortunately, the cheese turned out to be moldy so it might have been light on protein. What with the crises the last couple of weeks, keeping fresh groceries kind of went by the wayside. So, I’ve made a couple of shopping trips to correct that and today will hit the local farmer’s market here in Media. I found a pound of black beans and cooked them up, freezing 3 portions for later use and using one portion for dinner on Tuesday night. Yesterday was grilled cheese sandwiches along with some of the leftover bean dish. Today, I’m making a batch of granola. I’m looking for vegetarian recipes to make up and fill the freezer so that when I leave, there will be a selection of food ready to heat and eat. I’m hoping to get back for the Minnesota Blue Grass and Old Time Music Festival on August 10.

It has been a very long time since I wrote about our travels and I need to get to that. But first, I will bring you up to date on what we’ve been up to since we got back to Minnesota. We hurried across Quebec

and Ontario so that we could get back to Minnesota in time for Edie’s 5 ½ year summer birthday party. Her brave parents allowed her to invite 15 of her friends. They filled a pool with water in the back yard and invited parents to stick around for hamburgers and hot dogs in the middle of the day.Minnesota cooperated by providing a very warm sunny day for the event. Peggy and Greg provided a minimum amount of structure and limited it to 3 hours. I couldn’t have done it but the children all seemed to enjoy themselves and Edie did a magnificent job as a hostess.

The week after that, Don and I made a road trip in our car to Springfield, IL to attend the wedding of our dear friend’s daughter. So, on a beautiful, sweltering 102 degree day, overlooking the corn and soybeans at a winery we witnessed the union.
Fortunately, it was short and we all repaired into the winery to celebrate with the couple who are now on a 3 week journey to California, Seattle with an Alaskan Cruise returning to Illinois through Montana and South Dakota. They are young. It would take us 6 months to complete that trip but they have to get back in August to teach school.

About 3 weeks ago, Kelly informed daughter-in-law Peggy that she planned to come to Minnesota for the last weekend of July. When I suggested that we give her a shower, Peggy, who hadn’t had time to recover from the birthday party, went to work inviting all of DOM plus a couple of Kelly’s friends to her house on July 29. DOM, for those of you who don’t know, stands for Daughters of Marjorie. Marjorie is my mother. DOM includes all of her women descendants plus the women who have married her male descendants. About 15 of us were able to assemble on short notice so once more Minnesota weather cooperated and we met in Peggy’s back yard to shower Kelly with presents. Not many things can make me happier than an event such as this.

Jason, showing us why Kelly chose him as a partner, insisted that Kelly complete her planned trip even though he was in the hospital in Pennsylvania recovering from surgery. Meanwhile, when Don was driving to Minneapolis on Friday, he was second from the front in a 4 car pile-up on I-94 in the construction just west of the tunnel. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the car sustained significant damage to both the front and back end.

Kelly has asked me the week before if I would come back to Pennsylvania with her to lend a hand. I was glad to do that and it does feel good to be a little useful now. I will bring our travel adventures up to date in my next post.